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Scientists Build First Working Nuclear Clock Using Thorium Nuclei
@NewScientist reported that researchers at Vienna University of Technology created a prototype nuclear clock that uses thorium nuclei vibrations for timekeeping, operating continuously at room temperature.
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Scientists have built the first working nuclear clock that uses vibrations of atomic nuclei to keep time. Thorsten Schumm and colleagues at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria embedded thorium in a crystal made from calcium fluoride and used an ultraviolet laser shone through the crystal to drive the transitions.
The laser periodically switches between two frequencies just above and below thorium’s known nuclear frequency to tune itself.
The specific laser frequency required to excite the thorium nucleus was first discovered in 2023. The prototype runs at tens of seconds lost every billion years. The clock operated continuously overnight and for 24 hours without user intervention.
It works at room temperature and does not require cooling to extremely low temperatures or placement in a vacuum. ” He added: “It’s amazing. ” Schumm and colleagues used the clock’s high nuclear energies to rule out possible dark matter particles by checking for changes in nuclear energy transitions.
The nucleus is shielded from the electromagnetic environment of the atom’s electrons, making the clock more sensitive to external effects of physics. 04997.
